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'He wants to be successful with everything he does' - Leyds on O'Gara mentality
La Rochelle winger Dillyn Leyds has opened up on what has given the back-to-back European champions the edge in the last few seasons, citing man management as a crucially important factor.
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Leyds is back in Cape Town as the French team prepare to take on his former side, the Stormers, on Saturday.
Speaking to Behind the Ruck on what he puts the team’s success down to, Leyds spoke fondly of the former Ireland legend.
“A lot of credit has to go to Ronan O’Gara. When you speak about Ronan O’Gara the rugby player, you automatically think about his ambition, his desire, his want to win. He wants to be successful with everything he does.
“A training session, if he wants it to be that way, it has to go that way. [He’s] very focussed on detail. Then, you get the quality of players that we have, and when you get them to start believing in your process and the way you want things to work, and they buy into it, I think that’s a great recipe for success.
🤩 21 mai 2023, Vieux-Port de La Rochelle.
Du Jaune et du Noir. Près de 50 000 passionnés. Totalement indescriptible, indéfinissable. Bref, tout simplement unique… 💛
⭐️⭐️ Vous aussi, vous voyez double depuis samedi ?#LEIvSR | #ChampionsCup | #FievreSR pic.twitter.com/Lp2QE1J3bJ
— Stade Rochelais (@staderochelais) May 22, 2023
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“We also have a very strong leadership group that is very hard on players in the group, but in a way that you take it because they’re being honest with you. ‘I don’t think your standards at training are good enough, you need to tidy it up’.
“With all of our coaches, the way they make you believe that there is no one better than you in the world. They have this ambition… When ROG came in it was just about, ‘Why do we want to be satisfied with just being here, when we know we’ve got the ability and capability to push on and be more?’.
“And that changed the club, it changed the mindset of the people working at the club. Not just coaches but backroom staff, in the office, it changed the mindset of the players. And I think that’s got a helluva lot to do with why over recent years, we’ve been successful.”
The former Springbok, capped 10 times, says that a focus on family is a huge part of what ROG brought to the club.
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“ROG is big on family. Even at the start of the year we had a big welcoming, we had some new players, everyone had been away for a couple of weeks after the holidays, so at the start of the year he was the first one to say ‘Listen, we’re going to have a family day. Bring your kids, bring your wives, everyone’ and he spoke and said ‘Listen, this is how we do things at La Rochelle. This is what the club is about: You guys, the partners, as much as the players are the ones on the field, but you are the ones supporting them and making sure that whether they come home in a bad mood after a loss or whether they are in great spirits after a win, you are the ones seeing it all away from the field’.
“He knows how tough life can be when you’re in France, away from home, for us as foreigners. He knows when it’s time to say ‘look, we’re not going to play you this week, we don’t need you. Come to training on Monday and Tuesday but for the rest of the week, go away, if you want to go away with your wife, go with your kids Do whatever you want’.
“That really helps a lot, especially in the Top 14 when the season is so long and mentally draining, so you just need that time away when you can literally just not think about rugby, and be with your family.”
Following defeat to Leinster in round one, Leyds says that the team are very aware of how much trouble they will be in if they fail to beat the Stormers.
“It’s an exciting time for a lot of the boys to come to Cape Town for the first time, but lets not forget that we’re here to do a job too. If we go 0-2 then we make things pretty hard for ourselves. So this game is really important.
“We’re playing for our lives this weekend. As defending champs, we want to go out and show that last week was just a little bump in the road.
“A lot of the guys are excited about the fact that we’re going to be playing in dry weather too. Dry ball, give the ball some air, it’s going to be good.”
While the visitors come with a wealth of experience including the likes of France stars Jonathan Danty and Uini Atonio, the Stormers will have their Springboks back, with Damian Willemse and Manie Libbok in action, as well as Deon Fourie captaining the side from the flank.
The game kicks of at DHL Stadium in Cape Town at 14:00 local on Saturday 16 December.
Stormers:
15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Ben Loader, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Damian Willemse, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Herschel Jantjies, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Hacjivah Dayimani, 6 Deon Fourie (captain), 5 Ruben van Heerden, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Joseph Dweba, 1 Ali Vermaak.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Brok Harris, 19 Connor Evans, 20 Ben-Jason Dixon, 21 Marcel Theunissen, 22 Paul de Wet, 23 Courtnall Skosan.
La Rochelle:
15 Brice Dulin, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Ulupano Seuteni, 12 Jonathan Danty, 11 Jules Favre, 10 Antoine Hastoy, 9 Tawerra Kerr-barlow, 8 Yoan Tanga, 7 Levani Botia, 6 Paul Boudehent, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Thomas Lavault, 3 Uini Atonio, 2 Pierre Bourgarit (Cap), 1 Reda Wardi
Replacements: 16 Sacha Idoumi, 17 Joel Sclavi, 18 Georges-henri Colombe Reazel, 19 Ultan Dillane, 20 Rémi Picquette, 21 Judicaël Cancoriet, 22 Teddy Iribaren, 23 Hugo Reus.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments